Now, let’s get back to our semi-regularly scheduled reading of The Creed.

The last line of the Creed we looked at was and rose again on the third day. This moment of the Resurrection is not only a turning point for human history, it is the single most important thing that has ever happened. When Jesus rose from the dead, he conquered sin, he destroyed the power of death, and he opened the gates of Heaven. If Christ has not been raised from the dead, St. Paul teaches us, then we are the most pitiable people of them all. This does not, however, seem to be the case when we consult history. Starting from the moment of the Pentecost, the Church has steadily grown in the world. Within 300 years, the Roman Empire had converted from persecuting Christianity to professing Christianity. The Church kept the civilization of Europe alive after the collapse of the Empire. It is the most enduring force in history, and our culture is based on Christianity, and the reason for much of the turmoil in society is that Western civilization’s modern project since the “Enlightenment” period–a systematic rejection of traditions and approach of doubt–has attempted to overthrow the deeply Christian bedrock on which our culture is based. Even now, with the rise of the “nones”, atheism, paganism and outright satanism, when it seems like the Church is receding in Europe and parts of the Americas, it is experiencing explosive growth in Africa. This tells us something: the Resurrection is powerful.

For us to comprehend the saving power of the Resurrection, we have to understand what we are being saved from. Back in August, when I was working on the line “for our sake”, I mentioned that our faith can be summarized like this:

  1. God created the universe and all that is in it.
  2. After undergoing temptation from the evil one, man sinned, and all creation fell with him.
  3. God the Son entered creation, and He has saved us.
  4. In justice, we must respond generously to the saving action of God.

I didn’t dig into these points too deeply, but the time have come for us to do exactly that, because these four points summarize the kerygma, the basic proclamation of the Catholic and Christian faith.

First: God created the universe. This, in itself, is something to behold. When we get out of the city and away from all the light from it, it is astounding to look up at night and see the stars. There are trillions of them. And our star, the Sun, is not anywhere near the biggest. It’s kind of average. Just imagining the immensity of creation can be overwhelming. Everything that God creates is good. He doesn’t create junk. He creates and it is good, because God desires for it to be created. That means that each and every human being is created good. (This has major implications for the dignity of human life, but that’s a topic for another time.) And then, to ponder that God created it for us brings everything to an even more intense level. If everything that God creates is good, this means that God did not create evil. Evil is what happens when a creature turns away from God and journeys toward nothingness. And that leads us to the second point.

Second: If God created all things good, why is everything so messed up? Sin. That’s the simple answer. But we underestimate how bad this is, and we underestimate the anger, fury, and evil of our enemies. Simply put: Satan and all the demons who have rebelled against God hate him. They hate him so intensely that we as human beings are incapable of comprehending such hatred. They hate us human beings even more, because their hatred is fueled by envy of humanity. These creatures recognize that they have no power against God, so they instead try to hurt him by destroying his creation. We humans as both the pinnacle of material creation and as being created in the image and likeness of God are their primary targets. The desire to steal our souls from God, to get us to turn away from him, and to force us to join them in their eternal misery. If they can’t do that, then they desire to destroy our material bodies. Pagan human sacrifice (which happened in every place: Europe, the Americas [e.g., the Aztecs], the East, Africa), wars, the Holocaust, abortion, euthanasia, murder, and all of these sorts things destroy human life and further the war of the demonic against God.

And we’re stuck in the middle of it all.

Without help, we do not stand a chance. And that is where the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior, comes into the picture.

I’m running out of space for this week, so I’ll finish this line of thought next week.